Gouf Custom

Apologies for the late post. It has been a busy week, and on top of that Picspay has been playing the hard ball, forcing me to switch the images to another hosting site. Wish they won't go down as often as I have anticipated.

On the bright side, I have bought a 1/144 Gouf Custom model featured in 08th MS Team anime (for 45 Hong Kong Dollars). Keeping it in the same settings as the Guncannon MP Type, I want see how the Gouf looks like in green.


Planning:
The first thing a lot of Gundam fans would think is that a green Gouf would look just like a Zaku, which is quite true. I was a little worried while drafting the colour scheme, but after consulting some friends and my sister, I went along with it.



The idea behind it having the same colour as ordinary Zaku is inspired by Amuro Ray's encounter with the Gouf in the original Gundam series. It would be practical not only to change its colour for camouflage purposes but also to confuse the enemy into thinking it as a mere Zaku. "This is no Zaku, boy. No Zaku!"

Since I have been fairly busy this week, this gunpla was given a rather hasty work. I will definitely fine-tune it even more when I have the time.


Being an old model, this Gouf has very restricted articulations. There is no waist joint, and the feet don't stand easily unless the Gouf is standing upright. The gattling shield was originally completely black, so there has been quite a bit of recolouring on it. The small machinegun is also in one single colour, but that is not a big issue.


The Gouf shooting its gattling cannon. I was a bit surprised that it could stand on one leg given that the whole gattling shield does put on a small weight on one side.


Drawing the sabre out. I personally like this pose; it has a sinister tone to it.


There are about 3 types of 'weathering' seen in this photo. The rough green surfaces are accidently caused by the lack of paint and propellant in the spray can. The chest piece and the sword are sanded somewhat briefly with a filer. As for the rust on the metallic pipes, well, the answer is down below:


This is what I've used for the rust: Dried up bits of paint from Snakebite Leather colour for Warhammer models. These were given to me by a friend of mine who used to play Warhammer 40k, and I've almost never used them. I was hoping that I would now use them for drybrushing, but instead they've dried out like hardened chewing gum. The compromised solution is to rub them against the wanted area in order to leave pigments on the surface.


A random shootout pic for a finale. I hope you have enjoyed my post on this Zaku look-alike. I did mention that Gundam Ground Type would be next, but I am still stuck on the jungle colour scheme. If you do have a good idea on it, you can email me at quentinlau-at-yahoo-dot-com. I will be more than delighted to consider any good designs.